ty of the
domain of the grand khan to the islands and coasts which he had
discovered. And such imaginations are curiously embodied in some maps
of the early sixteenth century, which intermingle on the same
coast-line the new discoveries, from Labrador to Brazil, with the
provinces and rivers of Marco Polo's Cathay."[8]

Having shown the state of European geographical knowledge in the
fifteenth century, in the hope thereby of throwing light upon the
conditions which surrounded Vespucci at the time, we will now follow
as closely as possible the career which was then opening before him.
He was, as we have stated, keenly alive to what was taking place in
the world around him, and especially interested in geographical
discoveries. Although it is not likely that he had an abundance of
ready money, having been so many years engaged in preparation for his
great pursuit, without immediate recompense of any sort, yet we learn
from the records of his life that he was already making a collection
of all the charts, maps, and globes that he could find. He had
assembled the best works of the most distinguished projectors, and for
one of the finest then available, "a map of sea and land," made in
1439 by one Gabriel de Valesca, he paid the large sum of one hundred
and thirty ducats, equivalent to more than five hundred dollars at the
present day. There was danger then, his parents and friends thought,
of the abstruse and unprofitable science of cosmography absorbing him
entirely; but, though he may have indulged in the hope of devoting his
life to the studies which had so enriched the mind of his friend
Toscanelli, he was rudely awakened from his day-dream by a family
catastrophe.

Mention has been made of one of his brothers, Girolamo, who, about the
year 1480, left home and went to Asia Minor, including in his travels
a trip to Palestine. He finally established himself in one of the
Grecian cities, and, being of a hopeful turn, sent for and obtained
the greater portion of his father's money, with which he engaged in
trade. All went well for a time, and the Vespuccis congratulated
themselves upon having a son of the family finally embarked on the
full tide of commercial prosperity.

Nine years went by, and nothing but good news came from the absent
Girolamo; but one day, in 1489, disastrous tidings arrived. A
Florentine pilgrim, returning from a pious visit to the holy sepulchre
in Jerusalem, brought Amerigo a letter from his brot